{
"data": {
"id": 129214,
"accession_number": "1952.107",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Historiated Initial (A) Excised from a Gradual: Christ in Majesty with King David and Prophets, c. 1300\u20131340. Italy, Florence (?). Ink, tempera, and gold on parchment; sheet: 28 x 24 cm (11 x 9 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1952.107",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Historiated Initial (A) Excised from a Gradual: Christ in Majesty with King David and Prophets",
"creation_date": "c. 1300\u20131340",
"creation_date_earliest": 1295,
"creation_date_latest": 1345,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Italy, Florence (?)"
],
"technique": "ink, tempera, and gold on parchment",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Manuscript Illuminations",
"type": "Manuscript",
"measurements": "Sheet: 28 x 24 cm (11 x 9 7/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.28,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.24,
"width_inch": 9,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.4375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 311502,
"title": "The Decorated Letter and the Illuminator's Art",
"description": "The Decorated Letter and the Illuminator's Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 25-December 19, 1993).",
"opening_date": "1993-09-25T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 383281,
"title": "Stories from Storage",
"description": "Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).",
"opening_date": "2021-02-06T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Dr. Robert Forrer (1866-1947), Strasbourg, France",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Dr. Vladimir G. Simkhovitch, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?-1952",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1952-",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Directly below the decorated initial is a line of music; the black squares are music notes sitting on a staff. During the Middle Ages the staff had only four lines, unlike today.",
"description": "This initial A probably refers to one of the most famous responses in Latin sung on the first Advent Sunday before Christmas: Aspiciens a longe et ecce video Dei potentiam venientem (I look from afar, and behold I see the power of God coming). With this song the physical presence of Christ in the world was celebrated. The leaf is probably taken from an antiphonary, a large liturgical book used by the choir for chanting. The style is reminiscent of Italian art during the 1200s and can be dated to the time before the Black Death.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79909970"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1952.107-historiated-initial"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "\"Part II. Annual Report Issue for the Year 1952.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 40, no. 6 (1953)",
"page_number": "p. 135",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141894"
},
{
"citation": "Ricci, Seymour de. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, Supplement. New York: Bibliographical Society, 1961.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.107",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.107/1952.107_web.jpg",
"width": "797",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "620101",
"filename": "1952.107_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.107/1952.107_print.jpg",
"width": "3033",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "2927193",
"filename": "1952.107_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.107/1952.107_full.tif",
"width": "4738",
"height": "5312",
"filesize": "75544136",
"filename": "1952.107_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 129214,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1952-03-27T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1295,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1300\u20131340",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:49:05.021000"
}
}